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MDNA (album)
|Producers = Madonna Klas Åhlund Alle Benassi Benny Benassi Demacio Castellon Free School Jimmy Harry Michael Malih Indiigo William Orbit Martin Solveig |MiX = |Last album = '' '' |This album = '' '' |Next album = '' '' |Artist = Madonna }} MDNA is the twelfth studio album by American recording artist Madonna. The album was released March 23, 2012, released by Interscope Records. Basic Information MDNA is the first album not to be associated with Warner Bros. Records, the label she was signed to since 1982Madonna worked with a variety of producers for the album, such as: Alle Benassi, Benny Benassi, Demolition Crew, Free School, Michael Malih, Indiigo, William Orbit, Martin Solveig. It became Madonna's twelfth chart-topping album in the United Kingdom, surpassing Elvis Presley as the solo artist with the most number-one albums ever. Background In December 2010, Madonna posted a message on her Facebook page exclaiming: "Its official! I need to move. I need to sweat. I need to make new music! Music I can dance to. I'm on the lookout for the maddest, sickest, most badass people to collaborate with. I'm just saying ...." She reunited with producer William Orbit over a decade after their last collaboration. Madonna said: "With William, I didn't really have a discussion. We've worked on stuff for so many years that we kind of finish each other's sentences. He knows my taste and what I like." In July 2011, Martin Solveig was invited to a writing session in London. Originally Madonna had only acquired Solveig for an idea of one song which eventually turned into three "Give Me All Your Luvin", "I Don't Give A" and "Turn Up the Radio". In an interview with Billboard, Solveig felt the stature of Madonna's regular producers would be intimidating and so he chose to avoid "thinking about the legend, and do something that just makes sense". Madonna then enlisted several other producers for the project, including Alle Benassi, Benny Benassi, The Demolition Crew, Michael Malih and Indiigo. She also collaborated with female singer-rappers Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.. Madonna wished to collaborate with "women who ... have a strong sense of themselves", she found the pair were "fun to be around" and were both self-possessed people, referring to M.I.A. Madonna said "I don’t think she’s impressed much by stars and celebrities, so we just got down to business. I loved her." On December 15, 2011, Madonna announced that the album will be released in the spring of 2012 and it will be her debut release from her 360 Deal with Live Nation Entertainment which was signed in 2007. Through this contract, Madonna and Live Nation signed a three-album deal with Interscope Records, who will market and distribute the album. In the 2011 year-end readers poll by Billboard, it was voted as the most anticipated album of 2012. Titling MDNA The album's title was announced by Madonna during an interview on The Graham Norton Show on January 11, 2012. Martin Solveig revealed that it was M.I.A. who suggested the album title to Madonna, noting "We were having a lot of fun with the initials. M.I.A. said, "You should call your album 'MDNA' because it would be a good abbreviation and spelling of your name." Then we realized that there were actually many different possibilities of understanding for those initials—the most important being the DNA of Madonna." When discussing the album on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Madonna explained that the album's title is a triple entendre, representing both her name and "Madonna DNA." She also implied that it's also a reference to the drug MDMA, or ecstasy, which provides "euphoric feelings of love." It was condemned by Lucy Dawe, a spokesperson for the anti-drugs campaign group Cannabis Skunk Sense. She told The Sun newspaper that Madonna's choice of album title was "an ill advised decision." Track listing Deluxe edition Nightlife edition ;Notes *(*) denotes co-producer. *(^) denotes additional producer. Singles #''Give Me All Your Luvin: Released last February 3, 2012, Give Me All Your Luvin is the lead single off MDNA. It contains a rap part, featuring MIA and Nicki Minaj. It received mixed reception from critics and was seen in reviews, who complimented its "catchy" melodies, but felt that the musical composition is inferior to Madonna's previous singles. Many reviews said that it was a weak single and a bad start for the album, being a bad representation of it. The song reached the top of the charts in Canada, Finland, Hungary, Israel and Venezuela, and the top five in several European countries, Japan and South Korea. It became Madonna's 38th top-ten hit on the ''Billboard Hot 100, extending her record as the artist with most top-ten singles in the chart history. #''Girl Gone Wild: Released digitally last March 2, 2012, became the second single off MDNA. Like its first single, Girl Gone Wild also received mixed reception. Critics praised the dance nature of the song, but sounded too much from mainstream artists, and not being "originally Madonna." #Turn Up The Radio: Guy Oseary, Madonna's manager, has stated that this ''might, just might, be the third single off MDNA. Critical response '' MDNA'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 64, based on 34 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Andy Gill of The Independent wrote that it "represents a determined, no-nonsense restatement of the Madonna brand following the lacklustre Hard Candy". Rolling Stone writer Joe Levy called the album a "disco-fied divorce record" and wrote of its music, "there's lots of naughtiness for the DJ to bring back, and the music has depth that rewards repeated listening." Priya Elan of NME called MDNA "a ridiculously enjoyable romp", citing its "psychotic, soul-bearing stuff" as "some of the most visceral stuff she’s ever done." Laurence Green of musicOMH commended Madonna for "casting cares and judgement aside to produce some of the most energetic, vital-sounding music she’s delivered in years", and wrote of the album, "As a dance record, it excels, often simply because it does what it does with such unbridled confidence, of the kind that could only ever stem from Madonna." Enio Chiola of PopMatters wrote that she "deftly juggles the production variances" and called it "a welcome return to form in so many different ways." Although he found the lyrics somewhat clichéd, BBC Music's Nick Levine complimented the album's musical "thrills" and stated, "It's got its faults, but MDNA isn't just a good pop album, it's a good Madonna album too." Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe praised the songs that explore "more personal and abstract territory" and wrote that it "isn’t a perfect Madonna album, but it greatly surpasses its immediate predecessors when Madonna cracks that hard candy shell and allows us to get at the gooey emotional center". Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani found the album "surprisingly cohesive despite its seven-plus producers" and stated, "it's obvious Madge and Billy Bubbles can still create magic together." Simon Goddard of Q called it her best album since Ray of Light (1998), as did Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot, who wrote the she "excels" on the William Orbit-produced tracks. Caryn Ganz of Spin commented similarly, "if there's one producer who knows how to pluck Madonna's heartstrings, it's Ray of Light's Orbit." Jon Pareles of The New York Times viewed that Madonna's "pop instinct, the one that hones catchiness above all ... gets her through MDNA with hook after hook." In his consumer guide for MSN Music, Robert Christgau gave the album an A– rating, indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction." However, Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine found the album "flinty" and "excessively lean" as a result of "cool calculations" aimed to reassert Madonna's preeminence in dance and pop. Melissa Maerz of Entertainment Weekly wrote similarly, "all those reminders of her work ethic can feel exhausting." Helen Brown of The Daily Telegraph panned its lyrics as "horribly cliched" and criticized Madonna's direction, stating "a woman who’s putting so much visibly desperate energy into looking and sounding like a teenager is missing the point of pop, of parties … of life." Emily Mackay of The Quietus noted a "lack of ambition" and accused Madonna of "playing it safe". Pitchfork Media's Matthew Perpetua found most of it "shockingly banal" and "particularly hollow, the dead-eyed result of obligations, deadlines, and hedged bets." Maura Johnston of The Village Voice found Madonna's "move toward EDM ... hamfisted" and found her voice to be a "nonpresence". Los Angeles Times writer Randall Roberts viewed that its music suffers from "familiarity" and that the album "offers evidence that the singer has fallen behind, that she is no longer setting the conversation" in pop music. Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club criticized its "electronically manipulated" vocals and "big, generic Euro-dance beats", while calling MDNA "competent, but equally perfunctory." The Observer's Gareth Grundy was ambivalent toward the album's "clumsy rave-pop" tracks, but commented that "the more relaxed, less stentorian tracks sparkle", writing that its "final stretch ... sounds as if it's been borrowed from an entirely different and much better project." Alexis Petridis of The Guardian viewed the album as "neither triumph nor disaster", writing that it "turns out to be just another Madonna album". Commercial performance The album debuted at number one on the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_200 Billboard 200] with 359,000 copies sold in the United States, making it her biggest opening week sales since Music (2000). It became Madonna's eighth chart-topper and her fifth consecutive studio album to debut at number one. The album's sales were aided by Madonna's tour audience, who had option to get the album as part of their ticket purchase. Around 185,000 copies of first week sales reportedly came from that album-ticket bundling. In its second week, the album descended to number eight with 48,000 copies or 86.7% sales decrease, making it the biggest drop from the top spot since Michael Bublé's Christmas (2011), which dove to number 24 with 96% sales decrease, and the biggest second-week percentage drop for a number-one debuting album in the Nielsen SoundScan era, surpassing Lady Gaga's Born This Way (2011) with 84.28% sales decrease. MDNA also debuted at number one in Canadian Albums Chart, selling 32,000 copies in its first week. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at the top of the UK Albums Chart with first week sales of 56,335 copies. It became Madonna's twelfth album to top the chart, breaking the record previously held by Elvis Presley as the solo artist with the most number-one albums ever. Only The Beatles have more number-one albums in British chart history with fifteen. The album slipped to number seven in its second week and number 13 in its third week, making it the first Madonna studio album not to be in the top ten on its third week on the chart since 1984. In Germany, the album was certified gold in its first week by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI) for shipments of 100,000 copies and debuted at number three on the Media Control albums chart. In Australia, the album debuted at number one and was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 35,000 copies during its first week. It became Madonna's tenth chart-topping album in Australia, which made her the solo artist with the most number-one albums of all time, surpassing Jimmy Barnes, and pushed her behind only The Beatles with fourteen and U2 with eleven. In New Zealand, the album debuted at number three and becoming the highest debut peak of that week. However, the album descended at number thirty-seven, staying in the charts for three weeks. To date, this is Madonna's quick, but lowest studio album in that country. In Japan, MDNA debuted at number four on the Oricon weekly albums chart with first week sales of 31,000 physical units. In the same week, her Warner Bros.-released box set The Complete Studio Albums (1983–2008) also debuted at number nine, making Madonna the first international female artist in Japanese chart history to have two albums in the top ten simultaneously and the first international artist in 20 years to achieve such feat, after Bruce Springsteen, who occupied two simultaneous top-ten albums in 1992 with Human Touch and Lucky Town. With those two releases, Madonna has accumulated 22 top-ten albums in Japan, more than any other international artist. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan for shipments of 100,000 units. In India, the album shipped gold in its first week of release and became the country's fastest-selling international album of the year. Madonna also set record for a foreign album in Turkey as MDNA sold over 30,000 copies within four days, outselling all Turkish domestic albums. In Russia, album debuted atop the chart with 26K sold and was certified double-platinum. To the 25th of April the albums sales exceeded 50.000. According to 2M, MDNA is the only 13th foreign album in three years to top Russian Chart. Two weeks later, it was certified 5x Platinum and sold more than 7,000 physical copies, 44,000 digital copies and exceeded 1,5 million listens on the on-line streaming service Yandex.Music. Promotion Super Bowl Madonna performed at the Super Bowl XLVI during the Bridgestone Halftime Show which was broadcast on NBC on February 5, 2012, from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The performance included twenty dancing dolls, seventeen main dancers, a two hundred membered church choir, and a drumline consisting of a hundred percussionists. Thirty-six image projectors were utilized to create a spectacle of lights, while Madonna wore 120 individual prosthetic eyelashes. The show began with Madonna being carried into the stadium by 150 bearers, who wore pairs of black underwear designed by Calvin Klein. She arrived atop of a golden throne, which weighed over 1,200 pounds, and sported a long golden cape designed by Givenchy; completion of the cape happened over an approximate period of 750 hours. Madonna performed "Give Me All Your Luvin'" (joined by Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. dressed as cheerleaders), during a medley of her past hits "Vogue" and "Music" (performed with LMFAO along with excerpts from "Party Rock Anthem" and "Sexy and I Know It"), then an "Open Your Heart"/"Express Yourself" interlude followed by "Like a Prayer" (performed with Cee Lo Green). Once the show concluded, a group of 250 volunteers dismantled the stage in six minutes.In December 2011, it was announced that Madonna would perform at the Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Madonna collaborated with Cirque du Soleil in producing the show. Rehearsal for the halftime performance accumulated to an estimated 320 hours. The show was visualized by Cirque Du Soleil and Jamie King. The performance gained widespread attention from the media, after M.I.A. extended the middle finger to the camera near the end of her verse of the song instead of singing the word "sh*t". The incident prompted broadcaster NBC and the National Football League to issue apologies. Madonna's performance broke a record as the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show in history, garnering 114 million viewers. She also set a new record as the most tweeted about subject on the social network with 10,245 posts per second and became the most-searched term on Google during the event. Madonna was not paid for the performance, as previous performers at the event have not been paid. However, a Forbes analysis said before the event that, with 30-second commercial spots commanding over $3 million apiece, the 12 minutes of free television exposure had a considerable promotional value to Madonna's multiple enterprises coming to market at the time of the event. Media Following her performance at the Super Bowl, the album received limited promotion and Madonna was basically off the radar. She avoided major television appearances and live performances, instead focusing on rehearsals for her world tour. On April 11, 2012, her manager Guy Oseary explained on his twitter: "I wish we could have done TV last week but we were in rehearsals morning and night." Madonna used social media more to promote the album. Through her official Facebook, she published minute-long snippets of several album tracks, posted behind-the-scenes pictures of tour rehearsals and polled her fans about which back-catalog songs they'd like to hear when she hits the road. On March 24, 2012, Madonna took a livestream chat on Facebook with Jimmy Fallon. She later made a brief appearance on Ultra Music Festival 14 in Miami on March 2012, where she introduced Swedish DJ Avicii and his remix of her single, "Girl Gone Wild". ''MDNA Tour'' Madonna announced her ninth concert tour on February 7, 2012. The tour is set to begin on May 31 in Tel Aviv, Israel and end in Australia in early 2013. It will mark her biggest tour yet with 90 shows and will include her first concerts in Australia in nearly 20 years, as well as many markets she has never played before. This tour will play 26 European markets, including Rome, London, Paris, Milan, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Warsaw, Istanbul, Moscow and Berlin, before hitting North America with 26 shows. The tour will be promoted by Live Nation Entertainment as part of a 360 deal. On March 26, Madonna confirmed the tour title "MDNA Tour", via Twitter. Charts and certifications | align="left" valign="top" width="50%"| Certifications |} Release history Album Artwork -AllCDCovers- madonna mdna 2012 retail cd-front.jpg|The standard edition cover. Front.jpg|The deluxe edition cover. Category:Albums Category:MDNA